Trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange surged 40 percent in the first three months of 2015 to P641.59 billion from P457.08 billion year-on-year on robust market participation by both foreign and local investors.
The PSE in a statement said the average daily turnover jumped 48 percent year-on-year to P10.87 billion.
“We are pleased with the market participation we saw in the first quarter. Investors are really keen on being part of the Philippine growth story. We hope that upbeat corporate earnings and optimism over the local economy will continue to attract investors to our market,” said PSE president Hans Sicat.
The brisk trading activity in the first quarter boosted the 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index in registering 23 all-time intra-day highs, the most recent of which was on March 30, 2015 when the benchmark hit 8,007.98 .
Other positive stock market indicators in the first quarter include the significant increase in total market capitalization to P14.98 trillion, up 18 percent from P12.74 trillion on year.
Net foreign buying in the January-to-March period soared 182 percent to P48.87 billion from P17.33 billion in the same period in 2014.
The PSEi posted a 9.8-percent gain at the first quarter of 2015, the biggest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2013, when the main index climbed 18 percent. The All Shares index advanced 6.9 percent.
Four of the six sectors rose year-to-date. The property and holding firms sectors posted double-digit gains of 13.6 percent and 12.3 percen,t respectively. The financials sector gained 9.9 percent while the industrial sector advanced 7.1 percent.
However, the services and mining and oil sectors fell 1.2 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the PSE said the conduct of the first market rehearsal for its new trading system, the PSEtrade XTS, was successful.
The market rehearsal was part of the final stages of testing being done in preparation for the rollout of the new trading engine in May.
It is designed to replicate the behavior of the market under a regular trading environment and involves trading participants entering mock trades and orders.
“We are pleased with the turnout for the market rehearsal as it provided our market operations team and brokers the experience of using XTS during trading. It also gave us the opportunity to identify issues that need to be resolved as we prepare for the implementation of the new system,” Sicat said.